There's rarely been a better time to get into the gig economy, and with around 57 million gig workers currently in the market, the opportunities for people to get into gig work are as strong as ever. However, even though around one in three young adults now engages in gig work, it is still not always easy to understand how to get into the gig economy. How do you even start with this?

Well, if this is something you've been wondering about, there are plenty of options, and we have summarized some of the best tips today to give you a footing on the gig worker ladder. Usually, all you'll need to get started is a car, a license, and determination. So, go find that dream gig job ' it's out there waiting for you!

10 Simple Ideas to Maximize your Earnings This Holiday Season

We all want our earnings to go a little further, where possible. But, of course, the holiday season is traditionally a time of big spending. As such, it's incredibly common for people to end up massively overspending during the festive period ' leaving their bank balance looking painfully empty the following January. However, this doesn't have to be the case, and the upcoming holiday season might be just what you need to begin making a little money back on the side.

#1 Get Started with Food Deliveries

One of the main things you should consider to earn money over the festive season is simple: get started with food deliveries! With more and more people ordering food takeaways for the Christmas period, it's easy to see why the demand for these services can grow massively during the festive season. If you have a car and some free time, you could maximize your earnings significantly by offering food delivery solutions.

There are plenty of amazing food delivery apps you could potentially try if you've been looking to begin working for yourself this holiday season. Better yet, since you're an independent contractor with food delivery apps, you won't have to worry about keeping up the deliveries throughout the year ' whenever it works!

So, what are some of the different food delivery apps out there? Well, Payscale estimates that a food delivery driver's average income per hour is rather lacking $13. However, this isn't entirely the case, and there are plenty of food delivery apps that can help you earn more than this!

Some common options include GrubHub ($16), UberEats ($15), and Postmates ($19.50), to name a few. However, average incomes fluctuate significantly. With driver helper apps such as Para (we'll look at that in a bit), you can also increase this massively!

#2 Offer Ridesharing Services

More and more people are getting into food delivery services. However, if the thought of rushing between restaurants while trying to get food to the recipients on time and hot doesn't fill you with much joy this festive season, you could consider ridesharing services instead.

Opportunities for ridesharing jobs are a little more limited on Christmas day, in some cases, as many families tend to stay home with their loved ones. However, the time around Christmas is like a gold mine for delivery drivers, and for a very simple reason: parties. After all, there's a reason that the New Year is often considered one of the 'booziest' events on the annual calendar. No surprise, then, that a lot of people end up needing a lift home ' sometimes unexpectedly.

With so many parties constantly on the go, it's really not much of a surprise that rideshare drivers have many opportunities over Christmas and holidays. New Years' Eve and New Years' Day are especially popular, busy events since these often coincide with the year's biggest parties.

Often, demand for rideshare drivers begins steadily growing week-on-week during the month of December. So, don't miss out on these massive earning opportunities; ridesharing could be an excellent option to consider accordingly.

Some excellent ridesharing apps that you could consider include Uber and Lyft, which offer payouts of approximately $18 per hour each. That's not bad for a food delivery app, especially when you can use them in combination with each other (or alternative apps).

#3 Try Festive Blogging or Freelancing

Another potentially lucrative option you could consider this festive season is festive blogging and freelancing. If you have skills that are good enough to hire, you could do well working as a gig freelancer. However, if not, don't panic; festive blogging (especially if you can slip in some affiliate links, too) is an excellent way to make a little money on the side.

Affiliate links are especially popular among people looking to make a side income. Notably, people tend to be much more willing to spend over Christmas, making now an excellent time to consider blogging. With each sale, you'll take a small commission, and this can provide a fully passive form of income accordingly. So, why not give it a try; you don't even necessarily need to own a website in some cases.

#4 Create Christmas Crafts and Gifts

A handmade craft says so much more than a gift that's been mass-produced in a factory. With this thought in mind, for people who have been looking for a clever and inventive way to show someone how much they mean to them ' but who aren't the creative type themselves ' handmade gifts hold massive appeal. They are immediately more meaningful; turning your hand to crafts, if you have the skills, can be a great way to make a loving, authentic handmade gift for someone else.

Christmas crafts and gifts come in all shapes and sizes, but Christmas wreaths for the door and handmade Christmas cards are definitely among the most popular. Other common handmade Christmas gifts include trinkets, artwork, and the like.

#5 Offer Childcare Services

During the holiday season, the kids are largely all at home from work ' but not every adult will necessarily be able to take time off to look after them. With this thought in mind, offering childcare services for little ones during the festive season can be an excellent way to help instead.

Of course, before you can begin offering childcare services, you will need to take suitable qualifications and ensure you hold all necessary licenses, insurance, etc to work with children. However, if you can pass these, you'll be able to offer genuinely helpful childcare services. Not only is this massively important for many families, but it can also be a super way to net yourself a surprisingly lucrative sum of money. If you can look after several children at once, the income's even better!

#6 Become a Direct Seller

Have you ever heard of reps for different brands? Many people assume that reps are paid employees, but this isn't entirely the case. In fact, in many cases, these individuals are direct sellers ' in other words, individuals who sell the products on behalf of the company, either taking a commission or otherwise purchasing stock in bulk to upsell to customers in smaller quantities down the line. This can be an amazing option to make money on the side throughout the year. It becomes even better during the festive period when people are actively looking for gifts for their loved ones. So, whether you're selling small items for gift hampers or larger items for full presents, direct selling could be a worthwhile option to consider to boost your earning opportunities.

#7 Become a 'Christmas Helper'

The festive period is an amazing experience, but anyone who says it doesn't come with a lot of stress and work is lying. With this thought in mind, there's a huge market out there at this time of year for 'Christmas helpers' ' in other words, people who can help with basic shopping requirements and the like.

These helpers aren't usually tasked with overly taxing jobs but just the frustrating little tasks that we have no time for otherwise. Their help can be the difference between Christmas going off without a hitch or the entire season crashing down around us ' so it's easy to see why some people pay surprisingly good money for these services. Plus, it's well worth keeping in mind that Christmas helpers still retain full control over what they'd like to do, so this is genuinely just an additional earning opportunity on the side to help give you a little more in the way of earnings.

#8 Join Cashback Apps for Holiday Shopping

Holiday shopping gets expensive, without a doubt. However, if you've been looking to earn more money or save big, joining cashback apps is the ideal option at this time of year. Cashback apps are increasingly popular, and many of the biggest have paid millions to people using their services. As such, the scale of the savings is huge, and you might just find that you're able to save a huge chunk of money on your festive shopping.

Since the average spend on Christmas is around $1000, even a saving of just 10% could go a very long way. So, cashback could be the way to go if you need an extra idea to save big this winter.

#9 Try Multiapping for Gigs

There's a lot to love when it comes to multiapping. Multiapping, as the name would suggest, is the art of working for multiple gig apps at once. This might mean you work simultaneously on two rideshare apps, such as Lyft and Uber, or even that you switch between gig jobs, such as with Grubhub, Uber Eats and Uber. The choice is yours, and it's often worth pairing apps that have complementary strengths to get the best results.

However you decide to multi-app, Para will be there to help. As a professional tool, the Para app is designed to help streamline users' gig-taking efficiency. Features such as the ability to approve or auto decline offers with Para massively reduce the amount of time wasted switching between apps, keeping you safe on the road.

Better still, the Para app also displays the information you need immediately to help make your decision a little bit easier, so you spend less time digging through the unhelpful information and have everything in one handy notification bar. Uber drivers are able to see pickup and drop-off addresses, $/mile, delivery time and distance, earnings per hour, total payout, and passenger ratings among other things. Bonus: After 3+ missed offers, when GH kicks you out of the app, Para has set it up so that you will remain online and not miss any incoming offers (despite what the GH app says).

It's simple, easy, and effective ' just what you need to ensure that your gig work is as efficient as possible. After all, gig work is great, but idle time can be a killer in terms of productivity ' so why let this be the case for your own working goals? Multiapping with Para could be just the solution you need instead.

Be sure to visit the Para FAQs if you have any further questions.

#10 Try the ParaWorks App

As a final option, it's well worth trying to ParaWorks food delivery app as part of your decision. ParaWorks is a new way for drivers to find high-paying scheduled & on-demand job opportunities to make your work day much more efficient and profitable! It is specifically designed to be one of the best gig apps for earning a fair wage, with averages of around $25 ' substantially more than many other platforms!

However, perhaps the main selling point of the ParaWorks app to hire gig workers on demand is that it offers a more innovative range of gigs (ranging from the item and food delivery to merchandising to courier driving) and you'll know your full pay upfront as opposed to finding out after. This makes it much easier for gig workers to take on jobs that work for them, no matter what the task at hand might be.

So, if you've been feeling a little fed up with traditional gig work options, why not consider using the ParaWorks app to make things a little bit easier? Or, why not use ParaWorks alongside the main Para gig driver system to ensure your gig driving work is as efficient as possible, regardless of which platform you decide to work on?

Final Thoughts

Have you been struggling to find the ideal opportunities to maximize your earnings this holiday season? We often find it a little difficult to save up during the festive season, which is perhaps unsurprising. After all, for many of us, the festive season is a time of cheer, joy, and jubilation! However, if you've been having difficulty saving up and this has been putting a dampener on your celebrations, be sure to consider today's ten simple ideas to help.